Over several decades, Professor Peter Tamm, the museum's founder and benefactor, brought together some 26,000 model ships, 50,000 construction plans, 5,000 paintings and prints, 1.5 million photos, 120,000 books and a wide range of other maritime objects. This private collection, which is housed in Hamburg's historic Kaispeicher B docklands warehouse, is the largest of its kind in the world.